


On Floating Bodies

by jamaillith



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Genderfluid Character, Kissing, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:33:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3943783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamaillith/pseuds/jamaillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the <a href="http://such-heights.dreamwidth.org/459287.html?thread=8281111#cmt8281111">MCU Kissing Fest 2015</a> prompt, "Vision/Pepper, genderfluidity".</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Floating Bodies

Quiet nights are a rarity in the Avengers Tower. Pepper has learned to savor them. 

These days she spends most of her time away from their home-away-from-home-away-from-bad-guys -- between board meetings and investor meetings and meetings about meetings it's a turn up for the books when she spends three nights a week on the same coast. She has her apartment in LA and her office in New York, but in those scarce moments when she's not supposed to be anywhere she finds herself drifting back to Tony's lab, back to the benches and the soft hum of computers and the smell of battery acid and experimental wheatgrass smoothies.

It's no Point Dume, but it's close enough. And the view of New York at night is almost as good as watching waves breaking on the sea.

“Miss Potts.”

Pepper jumps. She'd been caught up in her thoughts, absently following the traffic inching up Park Avenue. Her datapad slips on her lap and she catches it in time to save it from hitting the floor. 

JARVIS' voice is so familiar that she almost looks down at the screen to see what he wants. Instead, she turns to see the Vision drifting gently towards her, holding a steaming mug of coffee.

“I recall you prefer this blend after midnight.” He holds it out to her, hand flat.

“Oh, you don't -- I mean, you didn't have to get me coffee.” Nevertheless, Pepper accepts the mug gratefully, cupping it between her palms and enjoying the warmth. She looks up at the creature floating in front of her. His expression is calm and unearthly as a rising moon. “I'm still not used to you being.. well, this.”

“I am and am not what you knew me as, Miss Potts. I am more and less. I'm still figuring it out.”

“But you still brought me coffee. Thank you.”

The Vision inclines his head slightly. “Of course. You're most welcome.” He turns as if to leave, cape rippling in the still air. 

“Wait.” Pepper scoots up a bit on the couch and pats the cushion beside her. “I’d like to talk to you, if you have some time.” 

Vision pauses a fraction of a second, then drifts silently towards her. He seems to examine the couch for a moment before sitting, although he doesn't actually touch the fabric, but hovers a half an inch above it. Pepper watches him closely.

“Is it difficult for you to, um..” She gestures towards him with her coffee. 

“You mean sitting? Not at all. I am getting used to this body. These limitations. I apologise if my actions have alarmed you, it was not my intention.” 

“No, no, it’s fine.”

“Here.” He lowers himself slowly, settling down onto the cushions. Pepper is surprised to find the feel of weight shifting beside her subtly comforting. She sips her coffee. It tastes like 4am in LA, asking to be followed by reheated Pad Thai and the warm pressure of Tony’s hand against the small of her back.

Vision watches her in silence. This close she can see subtle patterns imprinted on his skin, tiny fractals in the corners of his eyes. The gem in his forehead isn't a single light but a slow roiling of colour, like clouds drifting in front of the sun.

“So. I've been wondering, now you’re more.. corporeal -- ” Vision nods “ -- whether you are thinking of.. taking up your post in Stark Industries. I spoke to legal and they said that it would be okay, although I’m not sure if you’re a citizen yet, technically, so we’d have to deal with that, but your software is Stark property so -- ”

“No.” 

Pepper blinks. Vision turns his head to look out the window.

“I am not JARVIS, Miss Potts. I was created from him but I do not contain him. I am beyond software. I am beyond ownership.” He looks back at her, and suddenly the infinite patience in his gaze is as cold and alien as the stars. “I am not yours. So, respectfully, I must decline your offer.”

“Okay. Okay.” Pepper breathes out slowly, takes a sip of coffee and tries not to think about the feeling of red fire burning in her veins. Tries not to think about Obadiah. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”

The Vision tilts his head, the mechanisms in his eyes gently dilating. “Do not apologise. I welcome your curiosity.”

“ _Are_ you a ‘him’?” Pepper finds herself saying it before she can stop the words. “I mean, I’ve been assuming but maybe that’s wrong too..”

“I am not. I was created without gender. I choose to exist without it. But I don’t mind if you refer to me that way, if it makes you more comfortable.”

“But you look -- “ Pepper cuts herself off, frowning. 

“Masculine?” Something that might have been a smile deepens the corners of the Vision’s mouth. Pepper can’t help but wonder if he is actually amused or if he is, as he said, trying to make her more comfortable. She realises that she doesn’t particularly care. 

“Doctor Cho created this body as a template, a blank creature to pour Ultron into. It is genderless. My skin is made from artificially grown cells. My heart is a silicone composite. My Mind is..” he looks away from her again, out across the unsleeping city, “everything. And also nothing. Gender is a human concept; I am not.” He looks back at Pepper and smiles again; she finds herself echoing it. “That’s all.”

Pepper raises her hand, fingertips still warm from the coffee mug. “Do you mind if I..”

The Vision leans towards her slightly, the fabric of the couch creaking under his weight. “Not at all.” 

His cheek is surprisingly soft, not quite the same texture as skin but close, like very thin rubber. Pepper strokes her thumb over his cheekbone, gently touches his brow, brushes her fingers down along his jaw.

“This is amazing,” she breathes.

Vision’s gaze rests on her; Pepper thinks it’s rather like being looked at by a glacier, a thing so huge and full of silence and knowing. Her fingertips stop beside his mouth. Her heartbeat is racing in her chest. 

“Miss Potts, would you like to kiss me?”

The gem in his forehead is pulsating gently, a warm glow that Pepper can almost feel against her skin, under her ribs, between her legs. There’s only one answer.

“Yes, please.”

The Vision, to her surprise, meets her halfway. His -- _not his_ , a distant part of her mind recalls -- lips are soft and cool, not tasteless but faintly alkaline. Pepper leans into it, her eyes slipping closed. Her fingers slide down Vision’s neck, running over the ridges of his shoulders and the slick fabric of his cape. 

No breath against her mouth. No pulse under her fingertips. Just a moment, suspended in time, a seagull riding the breeze above a wave, bathed in sunlight.

Vision pulls back first. He reaches out and brushes stray hair back from Pepper’s forehead, a gesture so human that for a moment Pepper forgets that he’s not, never has been, never will be. That thought pulls her all the way out of her reverie. She clutches at her coffee mug and watches him rise from the couch, stepping out onto the air. 

“Thank you for your kindness, Miss Potts,” he says, once more shrouded in that impenetrable wall of calmness. Pepper lets out a shaky breath.

“Just Pepper.”

The Vision nods slowly. “Pepper,” he says, as if savouring it. Then he turns and drifts away, not even glancing back at her.

As soon as he’s gone from her sight, Pepper sinks back into the couch, her body humming with energy. She takes a long gulp of the rapidly cooling coffee and glances out the window, at the lights of the cars heading into the glittering hum of the city.

So much for a quiet night.


End file.
